What are the top 5 reasons why children should never skip breakfast?
a) It provides nutrients to start their day
b) Improves concentration in class
c) Improves the performance in problem-solving tasks
d) Prevent the children from choosing food high in high fat and sugar foods during lunch time because hunger set in long before lunch
e) Increase in extra calories would lead to weigh gain and obesity
What are 5 tips you have for parents whose children refuse to eat breakfast?
The 5 tips that parents can try would be
a) establish a daily meal time schedule
b) offer new foods often and repeatedly as a child may need 10-20 exposures before they will eat a new food
c) serve food in age-appropriate portion sizes
d) model good eating behavior for your child by eating a variety of types and textures of foods
e) Make mealtime a fun events and avoid bribing, coaxing or yelling during meals
Why is breakfast important, more than lunch or dinner?
Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all equally important because that would be where the child gets most of their daily requirement from and some from their snacks in between meals.
What are the top 5 breakfast combinations that you would recommend?
There are no top recommend choices as long as it is convenience to the parents and enjoying to the children would be the most important recommendation. It can be easy preparing breakfast like sandwich or cereal or a glass of milk to something complicated in preparation like a plate of noodle or rice based breakfast.
What constitutes the worst breakfast?
As mention in previous question there are actually no best or worst breakfast as long the child could meet part of the daily requirements through a varieties and balance diet from all the food groups (rice and alternatives, fruit, vegetable and meat and alternatives) would be the best.
What do you think the top 3 reasons for skipping breakfast is and are you ever guilty of them yourself?
Most of the time the reasons why the children skipped breakfast are because they could not wake up earlier to have a breakfast, rushing off to catch school bus, don’t have the appetite to eat as too early in the morning and school start time is very early. I do have the habit to have my breakfast before I start my work. If I am in hurry I would choose a light breakfast before the start of my work.
What do you hope to accomplish with regards to nutrition in Singapore, in 5 years time?
From the Association perspective we do hope that we would be able to register our Dietitian and Nutritionist in the country. Also to see the nutritional professional actively contributing to improving Singaporeans health.
Philips spokesperson Selina Thurer, Vice President, Philips Consumer Lifestyle Asia Pacific tells us about the SimplyHealthy@Schools program
How effective has the SimplyHealthy@Schools program been since it was first started?
SimplyHealthy@Schools community program is a global initiative started by Philips in 2009 to make its health and well-being expertise and resources available to a wider community.
Philips believes that empowering and inspiring the next generation to have a healthy lifestyle helps people around the world live healthier lives on a healthier planet. Through SimplyHealthy@Schools program, Philips aims to reach children at schools across the world by giving them simple tips and tools to improve their well-being and others, as well as improve their performance at school, in a fun and interactive way.
This program has enabled the children to understand the importance of health and well-being by paying special attention to air, light, water and oral hygiene, nutrition as well as to observe a healthy living.
In 2011, the SimplyHealthy@Schools program was introduced in 50 countries, reaching almost 140,000 students, going to over 504 schools and actively involving more than 6,000 Philips employees from around the world on the ground and many thousands more online.
In Asia Pacific, Philips covered 7 countries and 29 schools, reaching over 5,200 students and involving 186 volunteers in 2011. They continue to assess the need for new topics in the SimplyHealthy@Schools program that will contribute to helping children improve their health and well-being.
Why was Singapore chosen as amongst the first in the world to roll-out this educational module?
Singapore was one of the markets which piloted this program when it started in 2009. Additionally, the nutrition educational module for the SimplyHealthy@Schools program was developed in Singapore by Philips in collaboration with Singapore Nutrition and Dietetics Association (SNDA) to roll out across Asia Pacific and globally.
How has the feedback been like since this program was started?
SimplyHealthy@Schools program has gained great advocacy and positive feedbacks from teachers and students due to its practical and valuable knowledge. As mentioned above, Philips continues to assess the need for new topics in the SimplyHealthy@Schools program that will contribute to helping children improve their health and well-being.
Ms Chow Pek Yee is the President of the Federation of Asian Nutrition Societies. Ms Chow is actively involved in the Singapore Nutrition and Dietetics association since 2000.
She has also served as Treasurer, Secretary, Vice-President for the association since 2008 and chairperson for the XI Asian Congress of Nutrition 2011 in Singapore.
She is also currently a manager working at National Kidney Foundation Singapore and overseeing the nutrition programme in the foundation.
Previously she was a senior dietitian working at Nutrition and Dietetics Department, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and before that was in the Renal Nutrition Support Programme in the Renal Unit, Division of Nephrology in National University Health System in Singapore overseeing the renal nutrition support programme of the pre-dialysis, dialysis and kidney transplant patents for the past 7 years.
Prior to that, she was a health therapist with the Food and Nutrition Department, Ministry of Health Singapore for 1.5 years before her moving to clinical dietetics works in 1999 at Subang Jaya Medical Center, Malaysia and in 2000 onward at National University Hospital.
She also consults to the community satellite dialysis center at National Kidney Foundation Singapore. Ms Chow has given numerous professional and public talks relating to a wide variety of nutrition related topics. She has special interest in preventing and decreasing malnutrition in kidney disease patients and body composition of kidney disease patients.
She graduated from University of Kentucky with a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics degree and University of Sydney with a Master of Nutrition and Dietetics degree.
